My name is Marty Larkin, aka The Rock & Roll Chef®. A few years back, I went ahead and got The Rock & Roll Chef registered as a trademark (dig the "circle R") which makes me the only person who can legally call themselves that. Having a trademark is usually a good thing, but as part of the deal, you have to protect it from time to time, which can be time-consuming and expensive. But enough of the legal stuff for now.Beyond being the R&R Chef (I really am a professional chef and professional musician), I’m involved with a few other projects, which somehow end up all feeling pretty much the same. To me, most of the things I work on fall under the food, music or entertainment categories. Having said that, I’ve discovered most people have a hard time understanding how someone can be doing so many different things; or, at least, can’t believe that you'd be good at any single one of them. Or they just flat-out don’t believe what I’m telling them. I think our culture is to blame for this prejudice against jacks-of-all-trades; we’re trained from an early age to think only in terms of singular labels and categories for people.
I have also been accused of having too many projects going, of not deciding what I really want to be when I grow up. To which I say: Save it. The kind of people who would say that don't "get" me, and I don't "get" them, and I’m past giving a f*** about it. No, there’s just no substitute for a well-placed swear word. Poetry, in fact, when used correctly – like when Richard Pryor swore (vs. Eddie Murphy). So deal, baby.
REGRETS. Maybe part of all this activity is the desire to taste it all: To quote a late/great Warren Zevon tune: "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead." If I live to get old(er), the one thing I don’t want to take with me is… regrets. They’ll eat you alive, make you crazy, get you talking to yourself, chastise you. Regrets are the unforgiving inner dialogue, gunning you down like a solitary, perpetual firing squad that keeps on killing you, killing you, killing you, over and over. Hey, maybe I’ve gotten my ass kicked on something, did or said the wrong thing, made bad decisions on people I affiliated with; and maybe it happened more than once… but at least I’ll never have to say: What if? To me, taking those thoughts into old age would be a curse FAR greater than most things I can imagine. And so, after a lot of reservations about starting YET ANOTHER project, and not wanting any regrets in this area... I’m taking the advice of senor Leigh Hanlon, my scary-smart, fun and sociable, good with a quote, trivia king, amiable bar fly, shameless pun-monger and information junkie pal, and I’m starting this blog. FYI, Leigh and I work on a lot of cool stuff together, and his name will be popping up here quite a bit. As a newspaper guy (Chicago Tribune), Leigh's been urging me to do a blog (and a podcast), with a heavy spin on commercially-relevant content for quite awhile (i.e., recipes, culinary arts, etc.). While I understand and agree with his idea towards me being more commercially successful, it's taken me some real gumption to bolster the motivation to start yet another project, especially one in front of the computer screen. Startup is always the hardest part, especially another "spec" project - not a real exciting prospect for me.
PEOPLE POWER. After a lot of stops & starts with this thing, searching deep, here's the angle I think I'll pursue with this blog (after music, food & entertainment of course): People. If you’ve ever heard it said and believe that “the people you know are your greatest resource,” then I suppose I’m pretty resourceful. I’m not saying I’m on good terms with them all, but I really do know a lot of folks. Just like I know there’s a lot more to life than working one corporate job or career (not that there’s any real security or loyalty there), I’m truly interested in all kinds of stuff and the people involved with it. Especially creative/talented people and their projects/passions, who aren’t afraid to take a risk. The REAL heroes walking planet earth.
So, if I’m gonna spend more time sitting on my ass and killing my eyesight, I think I'll just highlight the projects and people I’m involved in, which I find incredibly interesting, and hope you do too.
NEXT UP: Chip Znuff of Enuff Znuff
My name is Marty Larkin, aka The Rock & Roll Chef®. A few years back, I went ahead and got The Rock & Roll Chef registered as a trademark (dig the "circle R") which makes me the only person who can legally call themselves that. Having a trademark is usually a good thing, but as part of the deal, you have to protect it from time to time, which can be time-consuming and expensive. But enough of the legal stuff for now.
Welcome to the bloggin world! I look forward to posts from a pal of Leigh's!
Posted by
Matt Maldre |
1:49 AM